Castro out for season, or should be, that is

Bad news got much worse for the Astros, as Jason Castro is now almost certainly out for the season with surgery this morning on a torn anterior cruciate ligament.

Tough blow for the young man, who was the No. 10 pick in the 2008 draft.

The team is officially saying he could be back in September, but that is optimistic and likely even foolish.

It would make almost no sense to rush a catcher back from a serious knee injury. Not smart.

This is typically a 9-12 month injury, with six months being the absolute low end for an athlete. But for a catcher is required to do physically, I don’t see why they would even entertain the thought.

Not to mention, Castro is such a young player, why put him out there when he isn’t as strong as he could be and risk him taking another significant hit to his confidence? Yeah, I would be as worried about that as I would his re-injuring himself. (I assume doctors wouldn’t clear a guy until he could play.)

Maybe they will just dangle the hope that he might return at the end of the season as a carrot to help his rehab, so I guess that won’t hurt any.

The development of the young catcher took a serious blow with this injury. For a guy who was hoping to find himself, in many ways, when he returns he will have to start over.

Castro is only 23, so there should be plenty baseball left for him to play.

J.R. Towles and Humberto Quintero, who should get first crack at the job, are probably not the answer, but a strong spring for either and he’ll get a chance. Opportunity is definitely knocking.

If the Astros are serious about having a decent season (and that financial restraint because of the attempt to sell the team are not an issue), they will go find a catcher.

I wouldn’t be surprised of Bengie “Big Money” Molina’s agent has already left message for Ed Wade. Molina, who played for both eventual World Series teams last year is a free agent.

Speaking of ACL tears, the Owen Daniels signing is huge for the Texans.

Hey, you can’t spell Texans without a TE.

Daniels brings a dynamic to the offense that can’t be easily replaced.

Joel Dreesen is serviceable, but Daniels is special. Defenses that don’t respect what he does get crushed.

And coming off a serious knee injury, you could tell Daniels was not 10percent early in the season, but by the last month or so, he was almost back to normal.

He should hit the season in top shape this year and I would expect a monster year.

Now why the Texans were irking him by not making any serious contract offers for so long, I can’t tell you.

My assumption is the team was waiting to se what the CBA situation was before showing its cards.

Had a deal been more imminent, and Daniels been granted unrestricted free agency, which he should have been the Texans would have had to pay a lot more money to keep him.

As it was, negotiations took one night and Houston got its man.

Derrick Ward and Shaun Cody were good re-ups as well. Solid backups that provide quality depth are important to a football team.

Ward gets to hold it down through whatever training camp there is should Arian Foster’s contract situation results in a holdout and puts more heat on Ben Tate to come in prepared to battle for the No. 2 running back spot.

Cody was one of the team’s biggest surprises last season, as he had a strong year at defensive tackle, probably the most consistent play of any lineman on the roster.

While it would not be a good thing for the defense to expect him to start and get the majority of the snaps at the nose for Wade Phillips, he will play and should contribute.